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JAIPUR: The wait went on for more than a decade, but for Rajasthan’s cricket community, the dry spell finally ended on a historic Saturday morning in New Chandigarh. Not since Pankaj Singh stepped into the ancient Indian whites has a cricketer from the state won the coveted Test cap. After a gap of 12 years, the desert state has returned to the Test arena, thanks to Manusuthar, a young left-arm spinner from Sriganganagar.With this monumental feat, the 23-year-old Manav enters an elite club, becoming only the fifth cricketer from the state — after the legendary Salim Durrani, Hanumat Singh, Parthasarathy Sharma and Pankaj Singh — to represent the state in Test cricket.Long before the national selectors took notice, the foundations for this historic moment were being laid in the domestic trenches. Vineet Saxena, former Rajasthan player and senior coach of the men’s team in the 2022-23 season, vividly remembers a quiet morning. Ranji Trophy match that year when he got his first glimpse of Manav during a competitive game.“He was the guy who was getting players out in defense and at slip,” recalls Saxena.For a seasoned mentor like him, the wickets on the scorecard are sometimes deceiving, but the technical purity of the dismissal shows the true range of the bowler. Saxena points out that what makes Manu a truly exceptional left-arm spinner is his ability to fundamentally outsmart batsmen, beating them when they are actively trying to protect their stumps.“So usually, when we look at a bowler, the stats don’t suggest how he takes wickets. But if a bowler is dismissing a batsman in defence, that means the bowler has got really good quality,” added the former state coach.It was not just his tactical brilliance that caught the eye, but the incredible physicality of his bowling. Soother had a natural ability to manipulate the ball in the air, giving him a heavy swing that became a nightmare for home batsmen.“The other thing I observed was the reaves on the ball that he delivers, it’s amazing,” Saxena says. “In our parlance, we say the ball is turning and flowing, and cutting through the surface. So it has something to do with the revs he’s able to put on the ball. That’s a special thing he has.”This particular quality really exploded during Manav’s second Ranji Trophy season in 2022-23. The young spinner tore through the opposition line-up, picking up 39 wickets in just six matches at an incredible economy of 2.90, including two five-wicket hauls and a match-winning ten-wicket haul.Yet, what makes Soothor the ideal modern cricketer, and why many see him as a potential successor to Ravindra Jadeja, is his immense potential. Sattar was never content to be a one-dimensional expert.“In one game this season, he took five wickets against Pondicherry and fell just short of a century. So that would have been a big, big achievement,” Saxena notes. “He can become a good all-rounder. And also in batting, what I observed at that time was that he was very eager to learn. So he had this mindset and attitude.Naturally, any young left-arm orthodox spinner who can bat and hit massive domestic numbers will draw instant comparisons to Jadeja. As Manav officially embarks on his Test journey, it remains to be seen, but Saxena emphasized a balanced approach, vouching for the youngster’s immense potential.“Jadeja is perhaps one of the greatest all-rounders in India. So I think it would be wrong to compare Manav with him yet. Manav has a long way to go to achieve this,” says Saxena.Sathar’s adaptability became even more evident when he translated those red-ball performances into high-stakes white-ball cricket. Saxena recalls how the spinner held his own seamlessly against the country’s most feared, established pinch-hitters, proving that he is a real asset across formats.“Faced with a star-studded Mumbai team in practice games ahead of the Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Ahmedabad, he produced a brilliant performance against Shiv Dube. Despite Dube’s notorious dominance over left-arm spinners, he suppressed the all-rounder’s scoring rate to under a run a ball and dismissed him without a scare”.When the tournament officially began, Manav made his T20 debut as an impact player against Madhya Pradesh, with the in-form Venkatesh Iyer in charge.“Air is a good striker of the ball. In that game, he scored almost 60 runs off 30 balls. Out of that, against Manav, it was just a run a ball, and Manav bowled him around 8 to 10 balls. So even against the pinch hitters, he was able to control them. He has the skill set for T20, he just can’t play the game like he does in T20. Can survive in the long format,” he added.
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